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Spain arrests whistleblower in HSBC tax evasion scandal

FILE - In this Jan. 28, 2016 file photo, former HSBC employee Herve Falciani pauses during a press conference in Barcelona, Spain. A former HSBC technology employee convicted for leaking account data that led to a tax evasion scandal has been arrested in Madrid on an arrest warrant issued by Switzerland, Spanish police said Thursday, April 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)
Original Publication Date April 05, 2018 - 3:26 AM

MADRID - Spanish authorities temporarily released a whistleblower in a major tax evasion scandal while a judge decides whether to extradite him to Switzerland, where he faces a 5-year prison sentence for economic espionage.

The release on Thursday comes a day after Spanish police arrested Herve Falciani, a French citizen and former HSBC technology employee, as part of a years-long Swiss effort to win his arrest. Falciani was tried in absentia in Switzerland and has not made himself available to Swiss authorities.

A Swiss court convicted Falciani in 2015 on charges of economic espionage for leaking a massive amount of account information that led to a global wave of tax evasion probes. Falciani was also convicted for illegally obtaining data, breach of business confidentiality and of bank secrecy.

In Madrid on Thursday, a National Court judge released Falciani from custody, but confiscated his passport, limited his freedom of movement within Spain and ordered police surveillance on the IT specialist.

For anti-corruption activists Falciani is a crucial whistleblower whose more than 100,000 records on prominent clients of HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) SA led to probes in several countries into the dodging of taxes by wealthy people around the world.

The data, allegedly detailing accounts worth $100 billion, first emerged in press reports in 2008. The former Swiss bank unit employee then released the information to French tax authorities, who later shared it with Spain and other governments.

Falciani moved to Spain and co-operated with prosecutors there in some of the probes. He was arrested in Barcelona in 2012, but at the time Spain's National Court denied a Swiss request to extradite him on the grounds that breaking secrecy laws was not subject to prosecution in Spain.

Wednesday's arrest in Madrid came nearly two years after Falciani's conviction was made final by Swiss courts.

It also coincided with Spain's efforts to seek extradition from Switzerland of Marta Rovira, a prominent Catalan separatist politician considered key in the Spanish region's illegal independence bid. Swiss authorities have not ruled yet on whether she should be extradited.

Spain's Minister of Justice Rafael Catala said the government had no involvement in Falciani's arrest and that no connection should be made between the two cases.

"These are judicial cases sought in the realm of international co-operation," Catala told reporters on Thursday. "We shouldn't see into it more than that."

Confusion surrounded the origins of the new effort to bring Falciani into custody.

Lawyer Marc Henzelin, who represents Falciani in Switzerland, said that Swiss authorities had sent a letter in mid-March to Spanish counterparts seeking the arrest of Falciani.

But Folco Galli, a spokesman for Switzerland's Federal Office of Justice, said it was "completely wrong" to suggest that Swiss authorities have been seeking Falciani's arrest only since March.

He said Falciani has been listed since 2009 as a wanted person for extradition under the Schengen zone's notification system — first on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by a Swiss prosecutor that year, then based on the 2015 court conviction.

"On March 19, Spanish authorities told us (Swiss authorities) that the search for Mr. Falciani was valid for Spanish territory," said Galli, adding that he wanted to rectify erroneous media reports on the matter. He declined to say whether such a step was unusual, because co-operation on such cases between states is confidential.

He said that following word of Falciani's arrest, Swiss authorities have been preparing to make a formal extradition request on Thursday.

Henzelin, the lawyer, noted a "hypothesis" among some, which he could not confirm, that the arrest could be connected to a "sort of deal" between Spain and Switzerland over a transfer of Catalan separatists on Swiss soil who are wanted by Spanish authorities.

"I'm not able to verify that, but frankly if it were the case, I would consider that rather odious," said Henzelin. "It's not in the tradition of Swiss justice to do such a kind of bargaining. It seems to me it's more the habit of Russia and countries like that."

X.net, a platform of internet activists that co-operated with Falciani in some investigations into corruption and tax evasion, criticized the arrest.

"Whistleblowers of corruption used as exchange currency. What justice is this?" the platform wondered in a tweet.

Spanish defence lawyer Manuel Olle said the country's National Court had already ruled out Falciani's extradition in 2013.

"He can't be tried twice," Olle said, adding that he believed that the case was politically motivated.

___

Jamey Keaten contributed from Geneva.

News from © The Associated Press, 2018
The Associated Press

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